A Kickstarter project like no other, the Pebble is a wearable smartphone companion that does what it says it would do: Reduce the need to constantly fish your smartphone out of a pocket or purse to see what its beeping or buzzing meant.

A development from the original Jawbone Up fitness tracker, the new $150 device has Bluetooth to seamlessly keep a companion smartphone app up to date with the data the Up has gathered on your healthy habits.

Fitbit's Force is with you

The Fitbit Force is the latest wearable in a growing range from Fitbit. This time the device includes a tiny screen so that you just have to glance at your wrist to see what data it's tracked. Oh, and to tell the time, of course.

Samsung Grinds Its Galaxy Gear

Samsung's smartwatch is an odd one--it works with only a few devices, costs a steep $299 and has been criticized for having poor battery life and sluggish response times.

Baby wearables: Owlet

Wearable tech reaches an incredible new level with the Owlet, a "smart sock" for young babies that tracks their heart rate, blood oxygen, temperature, and sleep patterns. There's even a roll-over alert.

Nike Fuelband SE

Nike's latest wearable fitness device is its smartest yet, including systems that will even reward you with "points" if you partake in low-impact sports like yoga. And it can now track your sleep.

2013: The Year You Wore I.T. Well

My first computer was portable: A tiny Sinclair ZX-81 the size of a small hardcover book. Well, I say portable...the unit was tiny and you'd have to carry the household TV around it used as a display and also its mains cable. So, not portable then. Needless to say portable computing tech has evolved beyond all measure since then, and nowadays the power we carry in each of our smartphones is a billion times beyond what my fabulous 81 could do. And portable devices have this year made a really futuristic leap: You can wear many of them like accessories. Yes, we can expect that 2014 will see many more of them on sale, but it's safe to say that this year wearables have arrived.

Perhaps the second best known leader of the wearable tech revolution is the record-setting Kickstarter project Pebble. This year it shipped to buyers but went on to change the way we think about crowdfunded projects: It went on sale in real stores. The smartwatch even received a bunch of updates that added functionality, and it's been favorably compared to bigger-name efforts like Samsung's failed Galaxy Gear device because it actually works.

After headline-grabbing products like those there were also a host of wearable fitness and health devices on sale in 2013. Wearables jammed with sensors and wireless connections to companion smartphone devices promised to help track our every step, measure an unborn child's heart rate or sleep patterns, and generally help us live life a little more healthily. (To say nothing of the firehose of data that comes with each gadget.) Expect this device sector to explode in 2014.